


Red Thread

by Caelum_Blue



Series: Kataang Week 2020 [7]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Chi - Freeform, Chinese Mythology & Folklore, Conversations, F/M, Gen, Healing, Kataang Week 2020, Post-Series, Red String of Fate, Waterbending & Waterbenders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:42:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25680757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caelum_Blue/pseuds/Caelum_Blue
Summary: Written for Kataang Week 2020. Prompt - The Red Thread of Fate.“Oh,wow.That’s different!”“Not every day you see water glow,” Katara agreed smugly.“Oh, that’s cool too. But I’m talking about what you’re doing to the chi in my ligaments!”Ty Lee can see things.
Relationships: Aang & Ty Lee (Avatar), Aang/Katara (Avatar), Katara & Ty Lee (Avatar)
Series: Kataang Week 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1851361
Comments: 20
Kudos: 112





	Red Thread

**Author's Note:**

> Whooooooooo almost done Kataang Week! Which is good cuz I'm kinda flagging lol. Note to self: Work on things earlier, maybe don't do two Character Weeks in one month, haha. :P
> 
> Warnings for me playing fast and loose with auras and chi as a concept.
> 
> Enjoy!

“Oh, _wow._ That’s different!”

Katara looked up from the glowing water she was swirling around Ty Lee’s sprained ankle to give the other girl an amused look. “I guess you’ve never seen waterbending healing before.”

“Nope!” Ty Lee said. She leaned forward to watch Katara work, intrigued, one hand reaching out to point at what Katara was doing. “It’s _amazing.”_

“Not every day you see water glow,” Katara agreed smugly.

“Oh, that’s cool too. But I’m talking about what you’re doing to the chi in my ligaments!”

Now _that_ was unexpected. Katara instinctively glanced around for Mai or even Zuko - the other two Fire Nation teens were far more used to Ty Lee’s idiosyncrasies - but it was just the two of them sitting in the courtyard. She blinked at Ty Lee. “...What?”

“Yeah, you’re literally knitting it back together and fixing the flow - oh that is _so cool!”_ Ty Lee’s finger was hovering dangerously close to her ankle. 

“Please don’t touch the water,” Katara said. 

Ty Lee immediately withdrew her hand, but she was still completely enthralled watching Katara work. “You’re putting your own energy into it, and the water’s manipulating the chi flow,” she said, “but you’re pulling chi from my meridians, too.” She traced a line down her leg, following the shaoyang meridian.

“You can _see_ that?” Katara asked.

“Yep!”

Ty Lee’s terrifying accuracy in blocking people’s chi was starting to make sense. She’d been teaching Suki and the other Kyoshi Warriors for a while now, but even so they didn’t always land their hits properly. Katara had supposed Ty Lee had simply had a lifetime to memorize pressure points, but...maybe there was more to it.

“That’s...pretty cool too,” Katara said. _“I_ can’t even see that. I can _feel_ chi when I’m healing, but that’s about it.” Or maybe she was feeling blood. Well, wasn’t that a pleasant thought.

Ty Lee beamed. “It’s a gift. Usually.”

“So...what does chi look like?”

Ty Lee shrugged. “Chi.” When Katara gave her an unimpressed look, she giggled. “What does water look like?”

Katara opened her mouth to retort, realized she had no answer, and sighed.

Ty lee tilted her head, staring at her ankle. “It’s like...it has colors.”

“Colors,” Katara repeated.

“Yeah. And they kind of...float? Sometimes?”

“Floating colors.”

Ty Lee deflated. “It’s hard to explain.”

“You’re the first person I’ve met since Sifu Yugoda who understands how a meridian works and what I’m doing with it when I heal,” Katara said dryly. “I can try to understand.”

Ty Lee brightened. “Okay! You can see it too, you know. When you make the water glow. That’s the chi doing it. But I guess you can only see it when you’re really using it.”

“What does it usually look like?”

“It looks like...lines of energy.” She peered at her ankle. “Right now, I’m seeing where it’s blocked and torn, and how you’re loosening it up and drawing it back together - ooh!” Ty Lee sighed in relief just as Katara fixed one of the major tears in her ankle ligaments. “Yeah,” she managed after a moment. “Like that. Wow. This is _so much better_ than waiting for it to heal on its own.”

Katara smiled, smug. “And it has colors?”

“Yeah,” said Ty Lee. “They’re part of your aura.”

“And you can see those too, right?” Katara asked, remembering a few offhand comments the other girl had made since they’d met.

“Auras? Yeah, those are easy. Yours is very nice, by the way. Lots of blues and greens, some turquoise and pink.”

“What’s that mean?”

“You’re calm and compassionate and _definitely_ good at healing things,” Ty Lee grinned.

Katara grinned back. “That’s pretty cool that you can see all that.” She twisted the water around Ty Lee’s ankle.

“I can see lots of things,” Ty Lee said matter-of-factly. “Looking at you I can see your chi, your aura…” She peered at Katara’s foot for a moment, apparently concentrating. “And even your red string!”

“My what?” Katara asked.

“Your red string,” Ty Lee repeated. “But if you don’t want me to talk about that that’s fine, I get it, I know some people like surprises - ”

“Sorry, I just - what’s a red string?” Katara asked, thoroughly confused.

Ty Lee blinked. “...You don’t know?”

“Not a clue.”

“Do they not have red strings in the Water Tribe?”

“Well I guess we must, if _I_ have one,” Katara said, “but I’ve never heard of it before. What is it?” Was it bad? It sounded like a Fire Nation thing. That didn’t necessarily mean it was _bad_ but - why did she have a Fire Nation thing?

Ty Lee fiddled with her braid. “It’s fate,” she said. “The Red String of Fate. It’s a legend - except it’s real, of course. But the story goes that the Old Man Under the Moon ties a red string around the ankles of people who are destined to marry or fall in love with each other, connecting them before they know it.”

“So everyone is just...destined for a specific person?” Katara wasn’t one to disbelieve destiny - she’d believed in the Avatar’s return long after the rest of her tribe had lost hope, after all. She’d traveled across the world and back on that hope. And she considered herself pretty good friends with Iroh now, from whom she’d heard quite a bit about destiny. Heck, she’d even spent days pestering Aunt Wu for information on her future husband. “That sounds romantic.”

“Ideally?” Ty Le said, looking uncertain. “Sometimes it’s just...there, but nothing comes of it. Sometimes things happen.” She grimaced and glanced away, eyes going sad. “Sometimes the string gets cut, or breaks.”

“Oh,” said Katara. She wondered if Ty Lee knew someone with a broken string, but decided against asking. The war had lasted a hundred years, and despite being the perpetrators, the Fire Nation was not without its losses. She finished up with the water around Ty Lee’s leg, tossing it back into the courtyard fountain. “How’s that?”

Ty Lee carefully rolled her foot in several directions. “Wow, this feels _so much better,_ thank you!”

“Try standing up,” Katara said, eyeing Ty Lee’s ankle as she got to her feet. “Carefully.”

Ty Lee stood, flexed her leg once or twice, took a few careful steps, and then whooped and did a full set of cartwheels around the courtyard and back.

“Careful!” Katara yelped, even as Ty Lee came to a stop before her. She didn’t want the girl undoing her work already.

“Good as new!” Ty Lee proclaimed. “You’re amazing, thank you so much!” She looked about three seconds from tackling Katara in a hug, but also like she was capable of restraining herself. Katara appreciated it. Ty Lee was a nice girl, now that she was getting to know her, but...they weren’t quite at hugs yet.

“You’re welcome,” Katara said. “Thanks for telling me about red strings. It’s a nice story.”

“It is!” Ty Lee beamed. “And very popular. Everyone in the Fire Nation knows that story.”

“I’ve never heard it,” Katara said.

“I have!” Aang said cheerily, dropping into the courtyard from the eaves of an overhanging roof. “It’s mostly a Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom legend.”

“But it’s not a legend,” Ty Lee insisted. “It’s real. I mean...I’m looking at yours right now!”

“Oh, wow, your spirit sight’s that strong?” Aang asked.

“‘Yours’ as in both of ours?” Katara asked, glancing at Aang. “Or ‘yours’ as in mine and his, separately?”

“Do you really want to know?” Ty Lee asked, looking between them.

A bit of enthusiasm Katara hadn’t felt since leaving Aunt Wu’s village reared up in her heart, and she said, “Yes.”

At the same time, Aang said, “Oh, I already know.” 

Ty Lee and Katara looked at him, surprised.

“Mine just kind of...frays off, or something,” Aang elaborated. “Like it wasn’t finished.”

Ty Lee frowned at him before looking down at something that neither Aang nor Katara could see. “Uh...it looks pretty finished to me.” She peered closer. “The Old Man Under the Moon must’ve woven your strings together, because I can’t tell they were ever separate.”

Aang blinked. “Wait, what?”

“Who told you your string was broken?” Ty Lee demanded, looking miffed. “They must have awful spirit sight. I ought to tell them they shouldn’t go panicking people like that!”

“She’s dead,” Aang blurted. Katara winced and Ty Lee blanched. “I mean, she has to be dead, it’s been a hundred years. And she didn’t tell _me,_ I just overheard her talking to Monk Gyatso about it. They probably didn’t want me worried.”

“Oh,” said Ty Lee, admirably rallying from the experience of being Aang’s friend and realizing how much he’d lost over casual conversation. She’d get used to it, Katara thought wryly. “Well, that’s a relief. I hate it when people try to scare people with spirit sight to scam them or something, it’s so irresponsible!”

“Oh, I wasn’t scared,” Aang said quickly. “I mean, I was just a little kid? What did I care about marriage or unfinished strings? I wasn’t worried about it.” He rubbed the back of his neck, grinning sheepishly. “Not back then, anyway.” He glanced at Katara.

Katara smiled at him. “Were you worried about that the whole time?”

“Not the _whole_ time,” Aang insisted. “Just...sometimes. I didn’t know what an unfinished string meant! And I didn’t have anyone to ask about it, so…”

Katara raised an eyebrow. “You had an unfinished string over eighty years before I was even _born,_ Aang.”

“...Yeah,” Aang said, chuckling. “Guess that explains that, huh?”

Katara leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek.

 _“Awwwwww!”_ Ty Lee gushed. “You two are so cute! No wonder the Old Man Under the Moon chose you for each other!”

“Does he choose?” Katara asked. “Or does he just know the future and tie people together according to what he sees?”

“Uhhhhhhh,” said Ty Lee, “I’m...not sure?”

“If I ever meet him, I’ll ask,” Aang said.

“Well however he does it,” Ty Lee said, “you two are totally perfect for each other, even if you did have to wait a hundred years!”

Katara snorted and Aang smiled, but he looked slightly haunted. No one else would have known it but Katara - except Ty Lee apparently picked up on it too. Maybe it was her aura vision.

“...I’m sorry,” she said. “That...might have come out wrong.”

If Aang and Katara had always been destined for each other, that meant he’d always been destined for the iceberg. That he’d always been destined to lose a century. Perhaps the war and the loss of the Airbenders had been destiny as well. 

Tragedies such as those should never simply be accepted as fate.

“It’s okay,” Aang said, even though it really wasn’t and never would be. “I find it’s best to just...not think about destiny too deeply. It just...is.”

Katara nudged his shoulder. “Hey,” she said, “destiny can be changed. It isn’t set in stone. And sometimes we’re completely wrong about it. I mean, the Fire Nation thought it was their destiny to take over the whole world, and look how that turned out.”

“Oh, yeah,” Ty Lee said, flipping her braid over her shoulder, “we were _super_ wrong about that.”

“Your string was unfinished,” Katara said. “Maybe it would’ve joined up with someone else’s. And we don’t know when it merged with mine. Who really knows?”

Aang smiled at her. “Destiny _is_ a funny thing,” he agreed. And then, teasing, “And you were worth waiting for.”

“Aang!” she laughed, and he pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“But you should still _totally_ ask the Old Man Under the Moon how it works, if you ever meet him,” Ty Lee said. “Now _I’m_ curious!”

“Oh, I will,” Aang promised, looking into Katara’s eyes. “Right after I thank him.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are always appreciated.
> 
> Notes:
> 
> Welp I guess I have a vague headcanon idea on how waterbending healing works now, lol. I mean it makes sense Katara couldn't heal Jet if the energy needed to do so was more than she and he had available. Spirit Oasis water is clearly imbued with a ton of extra energy and spiritual properties, allowing it to perform miracles, lol. Meridians are a concept in traditional Chinese medicine, and I am fairly certain Waterbenders use them because I think the dummy Yugoda was demonstrating on in her class had meridian outlines on it that she was making the water follow.
> 
> Aura colors can be very different and sometimes even contradictory depending on which website you're looking at, but for my purposes, blues mean caring, loving, and sensitive, greens mean growth, healing, and an ability to cause change, turquoise is more sensitivity and healing, pink indicates love and compassion, not necessarily just for a person, but for what you're doing or believe in.
> 
> The Red Thread of Fate is, of course, an ancient Chinese legend that also made its way to Japan and Korea. Originally the red thread was tied around the ankles of people destined to be married, though in modern times it's depicted around the bearers' fingers. The thread is tied by Yuè Xià Lǎorén, the Chinese god of marriage and love who often appears as an old man under the moon. The original myth has it that the red thread cannot be broken, as those bound by it are destined to be together. I've taken interpretational liberties with it for angst purposes. Anyone who's familiar with my headcanons for Ty Lee's family, you have three guesses as to who Ty Lee knows with a broken red string, and the first two don't count. :P
> 
> I'm not sure if the original myth was strictly for people who were meant to be married, or if those destined to love without marriage were included. For the purposes of my worldbuilding, I've decided it doesn't necessarily mean marriage, just that two people are meant to be together romantically.
> 
> Also the idea of destiny is pretty epic in a series like ATLA and it IS a centric theme so it's definitely a force in the story HOWEVER I dislike the idea of Aang and Katara being so destined for each other Aang had to get frozen and the Airbenders had to get wiped out so like...idk I fiddled with that a bit at the end. *shrugs* I didn't go too deep tho, because it's late and this is a oneshot and let's be honest, I mostly wrote this for Ty Lee. ;)


End file.
